


Christmas Squared

by slightly_ajar



Series: Stable AU [5]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Jumpers, Christmas Sweaters, Fluff, Stable AU, dad!Jack, lots of fluff, teen!Mac, very little plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:02:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21821884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightly_ajar/pseuds/slightly_ajar
Summary: “Great!” Jack strode into the room grinning like a Cheshire Cat who’d just received news of a lottery win.  “I’ve got something amazing to show you,” he dropped a shopping bag onto Mac’s bed. “You're going to love this, look!”Set in dickgrysvn's Stablehands + Stable Homes AU and alongside violetvaria’s Stable AU
Series: Stable AU [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1491458
Comments: 17
Kudos: 35
Collections: Stable_AU





	Christmas Squared

Scraps of paper littered the floor. Each piece had equations and pieces of circuits scribbled on it in Mac’s sloping handwriting. Mac sat cross legged in the centre of the circle of notes. The system he’d created for his homework wasn’t working for reasons unknown, so he’d written out all the stages separately and spread them out around him in order on his bedroom carpet, thinking that if he literally put himself in the middle of the interconnected web like an engineering minded spider he’d be able to spot the fly in the logical progression. It hadn’t worked. Yet. Mac scowled at the pieces of paper and went back to the beginning of the calculations, muttering the details of each different part aloud to himself in the hope that the flaw would make itself known. 

There was a knock. “Mac?” Mac’s bedroom door opened and Jack’s head appeared around it. “Are you busy?” 

“Umm yes,” Mac looked up, “but what I’m doing isn’t going right.” 

“Maybe you should take a break and look at it again in a few minutes with fresh eyes?” 

Mac looked down at his work. “I’m not getting anywhere right now so that makes sense.” 

“Great!” Jack strode into the room grinning like a Cheshire Cat who’d just received news of a lottery win. “I’ve got something amazing to show you,” he dropped a shopping bag onto Mac’s bed. “You're going to love this, look!” 

Jack plunged his hand into the bag with a rustle and pulled out a black item of knitwear. He held it up under his chin to reveal a sweater with a dinosaur wearing a Santa hat emblazoned across the front with the caption, ‘Merry Rex-Mas!’ underneath. 

“Wha-?” Mac stared open mouthed. 

“It’s a Christmas sweater, genius! I got one for you too!” 

Jack reached back into the bag again and Mac watched him pull out his new sweater with a dull throb of concern. If the shirt Jack had willingly chosen for himself looked like, well like _that_ , Mac had no idea what the one his dad picked out for him would be like. Would it have snowmen on it? Elves? A Christmas tree with light up decorations that played a tune when you pressed the star on the top? 

The sweater Jack pulled out of the bag was dark blue and red with bold white silhouettes of polar bears, pine trees and snowflakes covering it. 

“I thought about getting us matching ones but decided that would be too dorky.” Jack said. 

“Yeah,” Mac answered, “we wouldn’t sweaters that were dorky.” 

Jack missed Mac’s sarcasm, or more likely chose to ignore it. He patted Mac’s new top affectionately. “I think this will suit you.” 

“Jack,” Mac asked with exaggerated care, “did the girl at the shop tell you they were cute?” 

“What? No! It’s not like that time with the calamari!” Jack rolled his eyes. “Sheesh!” 

“What are we going to do with them?” 

“Wear them of course! I was thinking we could have a Christmas movie marathon with snacks and these sweaters. The one I bought you is a little too big so your skinny self has room to grow into it. I thought this could be the start of a tradition.” Jack took a sideways leap and landed with a bounce on Mac’s bed. He sat up looking enthused in the way he always did when planning a fun, silly, father and son time scheme. He’d had that exact same gleam in his eyes when he’d seen their rocking chair while they were furniture shopping, as they’d left the house to go the Halloween fair and the time he decided to teach Mac how to shave. “I was thinking we could watch Die Hard – it is a Christmas movie – I have evidence to support this theory in case anyone argues with me,” a raised eyebrow levelled an accusation of dissent at Mac; when Mac shrugged in agreement Jack’s face fell, crestfallen that he wouldn’t get to mount his defence, “and we can watch It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street - I like the modern one but I’ll warn you now that I will cry when he talks in sign language to the little deaf girl – Elf, Arthur Christmas, Scrooged, The Muppet's Christmas Carol and any others that you can think of too.” 

“That will take a whole weekend!” Mac said, boggling slightly at just how long Jack was planning to spend in a Christmas movie binge. 

“That’s why I said it will be a marathon not a sprint.” Jack nodded. “Come on, it will be a fun and festive frolic.” He held up Mac’s sweater, dancing it from side to side with such joy in his expression that Mac couldn’t refuse him. 

“Okay. That does sounds like fun.” 

“Attaboy!” Jack tossed Mac his new top. “Put that somewhere safe, you’ll need it this weekend.” He looked down curiously at Mac’s scribblings. “What are you doing?” 

“Homework.” 

Jack squinted at the pages surrounding Mac. “I don’t know what they’re teaching in those classes of yours but it must be different from what we did in my school, you look like you’re planning on doing some kind of ritual there bud, add a couple of candles and I think you could summon the spirit of Stephen Hawking.” 

Mac laughed. “Only on a night with a full moon. The system I’m designing isn’t working so I hoped breaking it down into pieces would help me find the problem.” 

Jack hummed. “I have an equation for you,” he held up his Christmas top, the open mouthed roar of the dinosaur on it was almost as wide as Jack’s smile. “Jack + Mac + Sweaters + Snacks + Christmas movies = Awesome. Awesomeness squared! Or, like, cubed, or to the power of ten or something; you know, one of those math things that mean a lot.” 

“Awesomeness squared.” Mac said, smiling at the concept, Jack’s enthusiasm was contagious. “Who could say no to that?” 

“You’ll wear the sweater then?” 

“Of course.” 

“Awesome! We should go to the diner in them so Katie can see you wearing it. Women like a man in a novelty sweater, that’s a fact, they think they make us look warm, fun and approachable.” He winked. 

“Katie,” Mac flustered and blushed, “might not be working when we go in and even if she was she won’t care what I’m wearing.” 

“Of course she won’t.” Jack said in a deadpanned drawl. He climbed off Mac’s bed and stood. “I’ll leave you to plan your mission to Mars or whatever it is that you’re working on. Maybe when you’re done you could work out how Santa is able to deliver a toy to every child in the world in just one night.” 

“I thought he used magic.” 

“Of course he uses magic,” ‘Duh!’ was heavily implied in Jack’s tone, “but he’ll need to work out an effective route too. The quickest route from A to B is a straight line but since the Earth is round that makes the whole thing more complicated, I’m sure Mr Claus uses all the tools at his disposal to get the job done right: reindeer, magic, GPS and nerd powered geekery.” 

“How about I think about it and let you know what I come up with?” A small part of Mac’s brain had actually started wondering just how Santa’s Christmas Eve journey could be made possible. 

“That sounds good to me.” Jack said, giving Mac a thumbs up before leaving the room with a pleased swagger. Mac could hear him singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town as he headed to his room to hang up his sweater. “You’d better watch out, You’d better not cry, You’d better not pout I’m telling you why…”

  


“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, Yuletide choirs being sung by a fire and folks dressed up like Eskimos…”

Mac rolled over with a grunt and turned the alarm on his phone off. He’d programmed The Christmas Song to go off at 6am on the weekend of The Great Dalton Family Christmas Movie Marathon thinking that Jack wouldn’t be up at that hour on a Saturday giving him plenty of time to put his plan into action. He flopped onto his back and looked blearily up at the ceiling, huffing out a sound not unlike the noise the horses in the stable made to express their dissatisfaction. Nat King Cole had a silky smooth voice, as warm and rich as Jack’s homemade hot chocolate, but even his singing couldn’t make being woken up before sunrise on a weekend a pleasant experience. Still, Mac thought, heaving himself out of bed and reaching for his Christmas sweater, it would be worth it. 

Everything was ready. Mac had checked his work, and checked it again to be extra, extra sure that it all functioned, then sat on the sofa in the unlit living room listening for Jack’s footsteps in the hallway. He twitched nervously, not really sure what else to do with himself except wait for his dad to emerge. When he heard Jack’s bedroom door open and close Mac’s stomach clenched in anticipation. He was almost 100% sure that Jack would enjoy what he’d done, he would put his certainty at 98% if he was pressed for an answer. Maybe 97%. Jack liked surprises and he liked it when Mac made things so everything was bound to be fine. He was at least 95% sure of that. 

“Jack?” Mac called when his dad passed the living room door. 

“Mac?” Jack stopped and peered into the room towards the sound of Mac’s voice. He stepped inside, confusion and the beginnings of concern on his face. “Why are you sitting in the dark? Is everything okay?” 

“Everything’s fine. I’ve got something to show you.” Mac beckoned Jack further into the room. “We’re watching Christmas movies today, right? So I thought…I thought it might be nice to…” Mac chewed his lip and decided it would just be easier to show Jack what he’d done. “Turn on the plug board next to the Christmas tree.” 

Mac could see in Jack’s eyes that at least three teasing retorts to that request flashed through his mind in the seconds it took him to respond. Mac guessed they included comments like, ‘are we going to be launched into orbit?’, ‘set phasers for stun!’ and some terrible puns about shedding light on the situation. Jack dismissed them though, clearly seeing his son’s nervousness, and stepped over to the press the switch Mac had pointed out. 

At the click of the button strings of lights illuminated the room one by one. The sequence started with the Christmas tree as Bing Crosby began to sing about dreaming of a white Christmas and followed with the lights Mac had twisting across the room, around the window and over the bookshelves. A string of bulbs surrounded the pile of DVDs on the floor beside the TV, Die Hard waiting patiently on the top, and artificial candles shone on the coffee table. Finally the mantle above the fireplace filled with light, including ones that blazed inside the stockings hung on the chimney with Mac and Jack embroidered on. The room glowed. Gold, green and red shone softly from thoughtfully chosen corners and the air smelled of the pine of the tree and sweet snacks waiting on the table. 

Jack’s jaw dropped open then his mouth curved up into a huge grin. 

“Buddy,” he’d said in hushed awe, “this looks like the department store windows that my family visited when I was a kid. I used to press my nose up against the cold glass like I was trying to squash myself inside the displays because I wanted to feel what it was like to be inside all that shining Christmassyness. And now I know.” He circled slowly, carefully taking in each detail. They’d decorated the house the week before but Mac had added extra ornaments, paper snowflakes cascaded down the windows, a red breasted robin made of a large bauble and several paperclips proudly surveyed the room from the highest branch of the Christmas tree, painted tennis ball snowmen sat on the window sill and a procession of lollypop stick reindeer were dashing through the cotton wool snow in front of the fireplace. 

Jack tugged at his T-Rex Christmas sweater, “I’m so glad I came dressed for the occasion.” 

“Me too.” Mac smoothed down the front of his sweater. He was getting used to it. It was warm and soft and he supposed the pictures on it were jolly in a way that captured the season. “You like the room then?” Mac tried to keep the final tiny speck of trepidation he felt out of his voice. 

“I love it!” 

Mac thought back to what Jack had said when he’d explained his Christmas movie marathon plan. “Would you say it’s awesome squared?” he asked. 

“Kiddo, it’s most certainly awesome squared. It’s wonderful. It’s…it’s,” Jack threw an arm around his son and looked about, trying to find the right words to describe how he felt. Mac hadn’t been sure if he’d gone over the top with the lights and decorations in his need to create a pure festive moment. He knew he couldn’t capture everything he wanted to give and hoped to find in his and Jack’s first Christmas together with some wiring, a few decorations and a download of the Christmas Crooners but he couldn’t stop himself from trying. The build wasn’t perfect but he was sure it would make Jack happy despite that. And knowing that, that even though it wasn’t perfect what he’d done would still be unconditionally welcomed and loved, was like finding an enormous present wrapped in shining paper with his name on under the tree. 

Jack squeezed him a little tighter and looked pleased with himself, apparently having found the words to express what he wanted to say. “It’s Christmas squared!” 

**Author's Note:**

> I have a jumper with a Santa hat wearing dinosaur on that says Merry Rex-Mas. I had to get it from the men’s section of the shop because there wasn’t one like it in the ladies section - which is completely unreasonable if you ask me. 
> 
> I don’t know about Katie but I like a man in a novelty jumper for the reasons Jack’s states. I had a lovely time looking for Christmas jumpers on Pinterest when I was searching for inspiration for Mac’s (I think Katie probably enjoys them as much as I do).
> 
> I always cry when I’m watching the version of Miracle on 34th street with Richard Attenborough when he talks to the little girl in sign language. Every time.
> 
> There really is a CD called Christmas Crooners. I almost had Mac download Christmas with Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters but I decided that the Christmas Crooners had a better ring to it and it meant that he could be woken by Nat King Cole. Because who wouldn’t want to be woken by the dulcet tones of Nat King Cole?


End file.
